Additive manufacturing allows for fast prototyping without the need for molds or dies. Many types of additive manufacturing approaches exists, including stereo-lithography, fused deposition modeling, 3D printing, laser sintering and laser engineered net shaping. Additive manufacturing provides for low cost adaptations and construction of customized products and enables lightweight complex geometries that are potentially build from multiple materials. Each of these types of additive manufacturing methods requires buildup of materials either point by point or layer by layer.
While additive manufacturing has sometimes been considered to revolutionize the way products are constructed, this manufacturing method has not replaced traditional manufacturing methods because of the production time of each component using additive manufacturing. For example, after each layer is complete in any of the above types of additive manufacturing processes, an additional layer of, e.g., powder, is added so that the process may continue. Often these processes include a waiting period until the added material hardens before one can continue to the next layer. This approach is inherently slower than, e.g., traditional sintering or injection molding. This manufacturing speed deficiency directly translates into higher costs, low quantities, and thus, a limited market share.
One solution to the manufacturing speed deficiency is to provide numerous low cost 3D printers, which may allow for a larger number of individuals to directly produce the desired products. Another approach is to print multiple prototypes in one printer besides and on top of each other to maximize the printed material per layer and 3D printer. However, this approach is known to have increased wait times resulting from the necessity of hardening any materials, providing additional powder, and for cleanup.